Pinterest is one of the fastest growing social media sites out there. Here are a few facts about Pinterest:·Pinterest has over 85 million unique viewers each month; 80% of whom are women. ·Pinterest is the 16th most visited website in the United States.·The average order placed through Pinterest is $80.

With these kinds of statistics it may be hard to understand why we would actively choose to not offer Pinterest to our clients. The answer is actually very simple: Copyright Infringement. It may seem rather innocent to simply click “re-pin” and share something on one of your boards. The challenge is that much of what is shared is copyrighted.

Here is something to consider:

You’re surfing the web and find an amazing photo. You want to share it with your friends because you know that

they’ll love it as much as you do. Once you pin it your friends re-pin it and then their friends re-pin it and after a certain amount of time it has hundreds or thousands of re-pins. Then, out of no-where you get a certified letter from a lawyer saying you are being sued for copyright infringement. At this point you have no ability to just delete the pin and say you are sorry. It’s gone too far and the damage has been done.

Encouraging the use of Pinterest and getting involved in it for business opens the door to this happening.

It gets worse from there. If, by some chance, you are sued by someone you are not only held liable you are in fact responsible for not only YOUR legal fees, but Pinterest’s as well! Their Terms and Conditions make it clear that they know this is a possibility and they say that they are just offering a service so they are not responsible for the illegal behavior that happens. A lawyer, who is also a photographer, researched this and deleted her accounts after. Pinterest co-founder Ben Silbermann called her to discuss the copyright issues. Silbermann told her he was "basically a guy with a

computer who had a vision" who "knows there are issues with Pinterest and the fear of claims of copyright infringement." (Read that article here)

Needless to say we do not encourage any of our clients to participate in a site that could cause them harm down the road. Your business may make you a target for lawsuits to begin with, there is no reason to give someone extra cause to try and get something from you.

When most people hear the word of marketing they assume advertising. This means they think marketing simply means selling. Whether that is selling a product, themselves, or even a potential political candidate, it is convincing someone to like or buy something. When developing a marketing campaign there needs to be a singular goal. That requires the analysis of the situation currently. You must:

1.)Identify the key issues (short-term and long-term)

When identifying the key issues, understand whether they are short-term or long-term issues; that is a short-term issue should have a short-term solution a long term issue should have a long-term solution. For example a sales promotion is a short-term issue whereas a rebranding is a long-term issue.

2.)Weigh the pros and cons of the solutions

Every solution will have pros and cons. You can never

have one without the other. Find the solution that is either the most cost-effective or maximum brand value adding.

3.)Develop a strategic plan

Develop a strategic plan based off of the solution chosen and how to support that solution. Figure out the logistics whether you need to bring on more labor, outsourcing, money spent towards materials, brochures, pamphlets etc., or advertising space.

4.)Develop an implementation plan

An often overlooked step, develop an implementation plan. So many things in life are determined by execution. In almost every market there is very little margin, so figure out to the detail how the strategic plan will succeed.

5.)Weigh the risks associated with the strategic and implementation plans

Is important to understand the risks associated with any project undertaken. For example, Nationwide took a risk with the Super Bowl ad of the child dying. Insurance sales is inherently a fear tactic, however there has been a backlash in the community for making such a depressing commercial. Of course it is far too early to tell whether or not this campaign worked, but it is important to develop metrics understand success.

6.)Create roadmaps; road markers for strategic progress check-ins

This leads me to my final point: developing check markers. It is essential for the firm to understand whether or not the marketing campaign was successful or not. The field of marketing metrics is extremely convoluted. It usually requires historical statistical data, however trying to isolate variables especially in larger firms is very tricky. The marketing team however should develop checkpoints with expectations of it asked increase in revenue or approval ratings or viewership.

Are Gen Y and Millennials really the same Generation? Looking at the Generation Gap. When it comes to marketing one of the first things you need to consider is: Who is your demographic group?

More and more marketing is focusing on 18-35 year olds. Generation Y and Millennials are both terms given to this current age range. To more accurately define this group it is people born between 1980 and 2000. The challenge with the typical generation assignment is that the world is speeding up. Things are changing at a much faster rate than it ever has before. The assumption that someone who was raised pre-tech boom would have the same values, goals and self-identity focus as someone who has had access to technology their entire lives is inaccurate.

Think about anyone you know who is 30-35. Now think about someone you know who is 20-25. How do they run their lives? What are their daily habits? Can you advertise to them the same? No. You need to understand the difference between the two. This is where I make the assertion that Gen Y is people born between 1980 and 1988 and Millennials are born between 1989 and 2000.

CDs came out in 1981. Gaming consoles became more and more popular through the 1980s. In 1982 only 8.2% of households had in home computers. By 1989 that number had risen to 15%. In 2000 that number had jumped to 51% and internet use had gone from below 1% in 1982 to 50% of households in 2000. The changes that came with this increase in technology fundamentally changes these two groups of people. It separates them so that they are different enough at their core it seems unreasonable to put them into the

same group. Technology isn’t slowing down. More than 80% of households now have a home computer and more children and teens are being given smartphones with access to the web at their fingertips at any moment of the day or night.

Another factor to consider is globalization. The Twin Towers fell in 2001. Children under the age of 5 will not remember a time before that attack. Consider how that has changed America. What it has done to fears, values and priorities? Can children who never knew a world without this fact be put into the same group that remember watching the footage live? What about ISIS and their worldwide terror attacks? They are changing how we think and how we operate. What will the difference be between people who are adjusting to this

as a part of life compared to those who it will simply just be a part of life?

We may need to start looking at these changes and redefine the time frame that makes a generation. We may need to start digging deeper into major changes in culture that affect how groups think and operate. The more we have access to the world the faster everything changes. Businesses need to adjust to keep up.

One of the biggest challenges in the marketing world previously has been getting feedback from consumers. Beyond purchasing dollars there were very few avenues for marketing teams to gather data and feedback from their customers. This is still true of traditional marketing. The leg work that goes into

seeing if numbers improve in the next quarter is extremely tedious. Even with all the data in the world how could the company be sure that the marketing campaign is what had an effect?

With traditional marketing you have to, once again, rely on your numbers to tell you how your customer base feels about your company, your brand. This is where you find out if the stories you have built to share your company’s personality have been received positively or negatively by your customers. These issues are nearly removed with social media. Right

away you can count your number of tweets, retweets, likes, shares and comments as well as the traditional route of watching numbers and getting surveys filled out give faster and more accurate results. You can also read and immediately respond to communication from customers in real time. Customers expect a

response via a social media platform in 2 hours or less. If it takes you more than one work day to respond, they will say that they have had a negative customer service experience. Your customers want to identify with your company. They want to feel important and included. They really want to be able to tell you about it.

If you want to increase your customer loyalty you need to be available on social media. Sharing content and responding to your customers will have a positive influence on your reach as well as your customers overall feelings toward you as a company. Both negative and positive feedback can and will help your business as well. Either one of these things gives you

the chance to show more of who you are as a company. Going the extra mile for a customer through social media is public. When others are searching out your business this will be something they have access to. Customers are willing to spend more money with businesses they know will provide excellent customer service if the need arises. The peace of mind of this is worth a few extra dollars here and there.

The bottom line: Make social media a priority for your company and increase your customer loyalty.

Designing your logo is a careful process that takes in to consideration what your company is, what your message is and how you want people to relate to you. Your logo will be an identifier to anyone who sees your content that this is your company. It’s a major part of your brand. Companies with great brand recognition don’t need their name on anything. That image will tell anyone who is familiar with it all they need to know. Starbucks for example used to be Starbucks Coffee and Tea. Recently they dropped the “Coffee and Tea” part as they work on expanding their brand. All they need is the mermaid logo in green and white and we know it’s part of their company, their brand. Here is a quick walkthrough of the process our graphic design team goes through in creating the ideal logo for your company.

In this example our lead designer, Tirumari Jothi, is putting together concepts for Lightened Energy Dynamic an LED Retrofit company. He is looking at what an LED is as well as what they could represent to get concepts for the logo.

Next he played with the idea of repetition. This works especially for LEDs because they have a repeating pattern. Identifying aspects of your business or product like this will help our team create a logo that clearly represents you. It may be more subtle than a direct image of your product but still suggests it. Color is another important part of getting across your message without screaming it. Our designers will look at your business, trends in colors and various combinations to create the right formula for your logo.

This final step pulls involves everyone. Feedback from our team and the client will put the finishing touches on the logo. With this finalized item ready to go we can create icons for every aspect of your business. High resolution and fit to meet the size requirements for any location you need. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, business cards, brochures etc. all require different size graphics. Having the correct images instead of trying to make them fit will make your business look more polished and reliable.